Three dead, 15 hurt in Philippines blast
Posted: 29 June 2009 0927 hrs

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COTABATO, Philippines: Bombs ripped through a cafe in the southern Philippines early Monday, killing three people and wounding 15, the military and witnesses said.

The three dead included a man seen placing one of the devices in a garbage bin at a coffee shop near the town of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, an overwhelmingly Muslim section of Mindanao island, one witness said, quoting local police.

"(One) bomb exploded prematurely. Among those killed was the bomb courier," said Major Randolph Cabangbang, military spokesman for the region.

He blamed a hardline Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) faction for the attack, which he said also injured 15 civilians.

"Military bomb experts told me that two bombs simultaneously exploded and they are still looking for the third explosive," said Eduardo Vasquez, a Roman Catholic priest who witnessed the attack.

The MILF, a group that has been waging a decades-old separatist campaign in the region, denied involvement and suggested government forces were to blame.

"Villagers saw soldiers arrive in the area at dawn and there was an explosion several hours later," MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters by telephone.

It was the second bombing in the region in three days, after nine people were wounded in a bus depot blast in the city of Tacurong. Local police said that was also carried out by the MILF.

A hardline MILF faction launched a series of raids on Christian settler communities across Mindanao in August 2008 that left dozens of civilians dead and displaced more than half a million people, according to aid agencies.

They followed a Supreme Court ruling that outlawed a draft peace agreement offered by President Gloria Arroyo to the MILF to end decades of rebellion in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation.

The treaty would have given the large Muslim minority political control over large swathes of the south, which Christian politicians alleged would have been disproportionate to Muslim population numbers.

- AFP/yt